The Sunday Mail
Hunt for Greatness
Milton Kamwendo
Life is meant to be lived. It is not to be passed through with a half-hearted, defeated and death-wishing attitude.
Show up as a living being and not a dead victim. Og Mandino once said: “Most humans, in varying degrees, are already dead. In one way or another they have lost their dreams, their ambitions, their desire for a better life. They have surrendered their fight for self-esteem and they have compromised their great potential. They have settled for a life of mediocrity, days of despair and nights of tears.
They are no more than living deaths confined to cemeteries of their choice. Yet they need not remain in that state. They can be resurrected from their sorry condition. They can each perform the greatest miracle in the world. They can each come back from the dead.” Choose to come back from the dead and show life, passion and drive.
Quit being average
Raise the ceiling of your expectations and refuse to be satisfied with being average. Humility should never be confused with stupidity. Being average and satisfied is not being humble at all. The average person has stopped learning and stretching. Rebel from remaining in ignorance and put on your learning gear. Challenge yourself to learn, grow and become better than you were the last lock-down.
Do not park at yesterday
You cannot be satisfied with yesterday and you do not have the luxury of riding on a receding learning curve. To stay average, value entertainment more than you love learning.
When you stop learning, park in the past and harp about entitlements and history you will remain in the museum of life. Stretch daily and keep a sharp and keen mind.
Keep challenging yourself to do better, taking bigger action and choosing to be the answer. Reject all resignation to being average, stop being passive, and non-committal.
This is no time to retire from life and becoming a mere passenger in life. As R. Buckminster Fuller once said we are all astronauts and co-pilots on spaceship earth. You are not living someone else’s life. This is the space you were crying for, you are the man and now get cracking and wake up from your slumber.
The average person is always always complaining talking about how things must be made better by someone else.
There is no genius in fault-finding or day-dreaming. The challenge is to be a solution provider.
The average person has no clear goal, except myriads of fantasies. Stop waiting for luck and playing games of chance.
Do not wait for change, but become the change you desire to see. Nothing happens on its own without someone making it happen. Be the agent of change.
Be the catalyst. Join the transformation team. The average person does not need to die because he is dead already and is now just passing time. Defy the mantra: “Dead at 35, buried at 85.” Refuse to be part of the living dead.
Quit the Wait
Live and lead from where you are. The best place to start is where you are. You do not have to be in charge in order to bring change.
You just need to take responsibility in your space. Stop making a career out of cynicism and criticism, roll up your sleeves and bring your fair share of visionary effort. To describe and do a surgical analysis of perennial problems that we have learnt to live with is not a scientific exploit.
Rise and do something to make a difference.
The measure of your greatness is what you do to turn chaos into order, the ordinary into massive feats.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote a poem that he entitled “Success”.
This poem that catalogues the critical attitude to greatness reads:
“To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
With this Emerson attitude you cannot just wait for life while it passes you by. You step up and start living to the full. You dare to do great things and make a dent in the universe. You do not afford the luxury of a negative thought and a toxic attitude. You swim upstream and face the current.
Quit thinking like a victim
To make progress you do not have the luxury to think, talk and behave like a victim and cry for attention. A victim thinks that he has been set up for abuse and everything is conspiring against progress. Stop pointing fingers and start doing something. Work on your attitude and mindset. Be the answer and the difference maker. Greatness robs you of the opportunities to shift blame and being a complainer. Put your faith deep into your source and then face the brutal realities of your life and context. Stop hiding from life. Stand up and be counted. If you do not rise up, nothing might rise up to greet you.
Quit waiting to be led
Do not wait to be led, prodded and threatened in order for you to wake up and take action. You are not a wheel-barrow but an agent of change. Do not wait to be pushed and motivated from outside. Motivate yourself daily. You do not have the luxury of having a wheelbarrow mental complex where you only go as far as you are pushed.
Dare to dream beyond the last drama that paralysed you. Take the challenge to be a self starter, to be an active doer, to be a mover and shaker. Choose to be a catalyst and transformer. Life is not waiting and you should also not be waiting. Time is not waiting and you should not be waiting. You cannot gamble with life and expect greatness. Great real, quit waiting and start working.
There is no glory in waiting for other people to put things right for you while you watch and hope for progress. Stop this lazy attitude to life where you subcontract your life to others. Life is not a spectator sport. You may not be in charge, but I am very sure that you are in charge of you. Drop all the expectations of being pushed. Play your part by taking personal responsibility.
Quit being half-hearted
Stop being half-committed and go all in. Commit to the task you have in hand. There are no half-hearted champions in anything. Move with resolve and focus. You have wasted enough time already and you do not affording the luxury of stalling and hesitating. You may not have all the answers. Just carry the questions while working with what you have. You may not have all the resources, but work with the ones you have. You may not know everything but learn what you need to learn you plod along.
Greatness is about moving and not stopping because you do not have all the answers. It is the question that opens the door and not the answers.
Quit being negative and embrace the light you see and work with it. Perspective is everything and revelation is progressive. Quit being suspicious, engage and start moving with resolve and determination.
Act now. Hope in God, believe in the future and be engaged in the present. Stop talking so loudly about the past unless you want to go and live there. Stop complaining so vociferously, focus your efforts and work. Focus on what you can change. Quit being a critic and start thinking critically and acting intentionally.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and a virtual, hybrid and in-person workshop facilitator. He is a cutting-edge strategy, team-building and organisation development facilitator and consultant. His life purpose is to inspire and promote greatness. He can be reached at: [email protected] and His website is: www.miltonkamwendo.com.
